311 : Garry Ray – Step back (not out) of retail arbitrage to step up into private label

11209454_10205465721942644_2816799389458381961_n

What a phenomenal discussion with Garry! My life is so much richer for it. Tough stuff to discuss but we all really need to open up more about this stuff. We have seen recently money does not equal happiness. This is so point on. But loving everyone and respecting everyone is a start. Follow through with kind words and respect and you have a block in your foundation. Build enough blocks and you can weather the difficult times. Garry’s advice will take you very far in life.

Mentioned:

Amazing Freedom Course

Garry’s Facebook contact

Sponsors

Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List

Solutions4ecommerce

Scope from Sellerlabs

GoDaddy

Grasshopper

Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)

Stephen:                             [00:00:00]               I’m excited to talk about my sponsors today, Gaye Lisbey’s million dollar arbitrage group. Amazing, amazing group. This is a teacher. This Gaye, she was a teacher. She is a teacher. Still. You need to learn. This is the type of environment you want to be in because she’s going to help you understand why, and I think that’s the hardest part of this business is understanding why. Why is the red one popular when the green one isn’t? Well, there’s usually a reason and what gay does is probably parse that better than anybody and she’ll explain the reasons for those things. I think that’s really powerful. Yes, she puts out a list. You’re going to get a good use of that list if you get in the group. Now here’s the deal. The group isn’t always open, right? So you get on the waiting list and you can join the waiting list through my link.

Stephen:                             [00:00:46]               I’m doesn’t cost anything to get on a waiting list and if you like her service, which I find that most people do that, that’s why there’s not so many openings. Um, you’ll be with her for a long time. And so it’s amazing freedom.com. She’s part of Andy Slam. It’s group amazing freedom.com. Forward slash momentum. And you’re going to get in the waiting list. That’s all I can get you on right now. You can use my name and see if that gets you anywhere. But what I like about in the uh, what I like about what they teach in that group or the things that are going on, you know, the current things. I’ve seen a lot of stuff going on about stores going out of business. Well here’s where an opportunity is, here’s why you want to do this. Hey, be cautious about this, you know, with toys r US coming out, you’ve got to think about this and that’s the learning that you need to do.

Stephen:                             [00:01:30]               And Gay is better than anybody else I’ve seen. So I’m amazing. Freedom Dot com. Forward slash momentum will get you to the waiting list. Then hopefully we can get you in the group and then you’re going to see me in there and we can chat anytime you’re ready. Karen lockers, group solutions, the number for ecommerce solutions, four ecommerce.com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you 50 bucks. Karen’s our account manager. We recommend her to everyone because she’s done so well for us. I mean that’s quite frankly the reason we’ve been paying her for the last few years, but she’s become an important part of our team. Her and her team are so involved in our account. I just see the emails coming back and forth, hey, we did this for you. I just saw two listings today. I’m like, wait a second. Why did they show up?

Stephen:                             [00:02:09]               I didn’t put any listings up. They got a. They got a set off to the side by Amazon and they reactivate them for me. You know what I mean? That’s the stuff that just happens when you have a strong team and I can’t recommend Karen enough if you use my code. Momentum. Karen pays me. I don’t want to hide that. Of course we all know that, but you’re going to say $50 and it’s a great opportunity to really, really build out your team with somebody you can trust. That’s why I recommend them. So solutions, four ecommerce solutions, the number four e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50. Oh, and by the way, she’s going to do an inventory health report. Why is that important? Well, guess what fees are going up. Is your inventory health number declining like ours is?

Stephen:                             [00:02:57]               Well, here’s why and what they can do. What I like is I get a spreadsheet from them and it says, Hey, here’s a bunch of inventory. Here’s what we recommend. And I’m like, Yup, refund. I mean delete a return to us, blah blah blah, whatever it is and it’s or destroy and it just happens. That’s what I like. The other thing that I have Karen helped me with a lot is creating new listings. You know, we do a lot of the research ourselves. We upload our images and then boom, magically the listing goes live and I don’t have to worry about it. Those are the services that Karen offers. CanNot recommend her enough solutions. Four ecommerce.com forward slash momentum. Save 50 bucks. Use My code. You save $50 a month every single month and it’s a great service. Plus you get that free inventory health report. I think it’s a really powerful way, so I can’t.

Stephen:                             [00:03:45]               I’m so excited how many people have been joining her because I see it and I’m excited because the messages I get from people saying, hey, this is great. I finally feel like I can focus on something else because Karen and her team are watching this for me and you know, I highly recommend her. Next up is scale lambs and scope and we’ll set it rolling. It’s, it’s amazing. I mean it really is amazing when you sit back and think about, hey, I want to get this product up and it similar to this product and that’s, that product does well. Well therefore if that product does well, they have the right keywords, they’ve chosen things correctly, so guess what? You scope and you could see all that stuff and that’s what the most powerful thing in the world is to copy somebody who’s done it right.

Stephen:                             [00:04:28]               That’s what you want to. You want to take advantage of that, right? I mean, it’s fair to see and so therefore you can take and apply it to your listing and immediately get that same benefit. That’s what scope does for me. Sellerlabs.com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50 on the service. Oh, by the way, it’s free to try, so sign up, try it and say, oh, this is how it’s done. Boom. And then you’re going to. The light’s going to go on and you’re going to be like, man, I can get my products out there. I just can’t wait. Can’t wait. So we’re labs.com forward slash momentum. The other day I bought in another domain. Yes, I bought it other domain. It’s almost like A. I’m admitting guilt, but it’s because I had an idea and it was something that was a pretty good idea I think is going to go pretty far.

Stephen:                             [00:05:18]               And so what do I do? I go to try Godaddy.com forward slash momentum and save 30 percent. So domains aren’t very expensive. You get a few services. It adds up a little bit and I usually buy three years. I usually by privacy, by the way, I recommend that to buy that, you know, it’s not that much money, but when you can save 30 percent it makes it that much sweeter and it makes it easier when you’re buying domains and especially if you buy a bunch of domains. I am a domain collector and so I do tend to do that, but that 30 percent makes it a lot easier and I use godaddy because what I like is I can pop in and address, I’m thinking and it’ll say, nope, nope, could try this version or try this extension and then boom, there it is. Hey, you better hurry before it goes away and the right, you know.

Stephen:                             [00:06:01]               And so try go daddy.com forward slash momentum save 30 percent. Also want to mention about grasshopper. Who was that? Just talking to somebody the other day and they were like, Oh yeah, use this company called grasshopper. I’m like, Dude, did you buy it through my link and save 30 percent? Hello? No, they missed that. So save 30 percent. It’s try grasshopper.com. Forward slash momentum. No surprise there, but you’re going to save 30 percent and what the real cool part about that is they’re using it for their private label business and it gives them virtually a second phone on their current phone without having to get another number. They can make up a vanity number. They don’t have to go and do all the grief and signed loan contracts. Pretty easy stuff, and so if you’re creating a brand that you want to identify, you want to look professional, you want to look like a real company. Grasshopper is a great tool. It’s an app you put on your existing phone and boom, you now have a customer service to. You now have a sales department. You’d have a manufacturing division. You could forward it to somebody else. You can have it go to different voicemails, different departments, and it’s all included. So try grasshopper.com, forward slash momentum. Save 30 percent.

Cool voice guy:                  [00:07:13]               Welcome to the ecommerce moment. Didn’t bond gas. Will we focus on the people, the products, and the process of ecommerce selling today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.

Stephen:                             [00:07:27]               Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode [3:11]. Gary Ray, let me just tell you, this is a very moving podcast and yes, I’m going to be man enough to say at the end I was crying and tough, you know, and so I will tell you this isn’t going to teach you how to run a PPC campaign. We’re not going to tell you the tape to use on the box or any of that kind of stuff, but we are going to tell you about life and some of the challenges in life and Gary will tell you, you know, he’s had a few challenges in life and you’re going to hear some of him, but he doesn’t feel sorry. You know, and it’s interesting how he never let them define him. Very inspiring, very moving, very moving to me. Um, it just, it’s just so cool that I get to meet people like this and to find them in my life. Oh, I’m so much richer for it. Let’s get into the story. All right. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. Very, very excited about today’s guest. A somebody who was recommended. Actually, I think this is the second time his name has come up and you know, I chased him for a little bit. He’s a very busy, very cool southern voice, very calming, calmer than mine. I think. Gary, welcome Gary.

Garry:                                   [00:08:39]               Steven, I appreciate a lot. That was such a nice intro. Actually. I think you’re the voice that all of us would want to have on speed dial case. We were on top of a two story building about the jump and we needed to call somebody to talk us down because you have the most soothing NPR type radio perhaps I’ve ever heard on these podcasts. And that’s really funny

Stephen:                             [00:08:58]               kind of view. Um, so. Hey Gary, life isn’t that bad. Please

Garry:                                   [00:09:04]               come on down. Come on Gary. If you are going to jump, can you at least land right here? It’s right.

Stephen:                             [00:09:10]               Please. Think of the family. Gary, come on. You got a lot to live for. All right, so you can record that and use that back if it ever gets tough. Life isn’t tough for you. And it’s funny. We’re almost the same age or a little teeny little bit older than me, but isn’t it cool for us old dude’s to have a start over? Not like you’re running away from something just because you can. To me, that’s such a cool thing about you and I

Garry:                                   [00:09:38]               actually, that is a. I did not know that’s how you want to start the interview, but that is absolutely correct. Just because you can. I like that. Like Sir Edmund Hillary in climbing Mount Everest or any challenge in life. The way we got into the Amazon space. We had zero III retail experience at all. Uh, I’m in the insurance industry and we got into this because we were empty nesters and my wife wanted something to do three years ago and we’ve sold a little over 2 million now and we had no previous experience at all and now we’re moving toward po, but it was simply just because we could. And we were just of bored and it really has taken off and it’s done. Also bought a lot of it, by the way, is because of your podcast, I think you’ve done over 300 podcasts and I’ve probably listened to 200 plus. So a lot of it goes to two people like you that just spent their talents for those people that doesn’t want to learn.

Stephen:                             [00:10:34]               Very kind of you. Um, what I also found fascinating with you is that you started selling insurance at 18 to me. Aren’t you supposed to go to college, Gary? Weren’t you going to be. I don’t know what you’re going to be, but you were supposed to go to college. You weren’t supposed to get into sales. How do you get there? How do you, how do you know? But early on when you think back, did you show traits? And this is an ego thing that I want you to swallow your pride and admit that you had it at 12, 13. You were selling your parents something. You were selling your grandparents, your friends. What was it?

Garry:                                   [00:11:12]               Well, I, I, no one has really ever asked me that question before. And I have been blessed enough to be interviewed by other channels before too, but nobody’s ever really asked me that. I was raised a lower middle class to almost poor and not because of bad parents. I had the world’s best Christian parents raised in Central Kentucky and, but my dad didn’t make much money and then we had a small farm and I actually remember in the eighth grade there was a class school trip and again I was born in 1962 so you can do the math and figure out what year that was in the seventies. And the class had a field trip and it cost $5 to go on his field trip. And everybody in the class went on this field trip. But me, I didn’t have the $5. And actually I had it that I had worked for.

Garry:                                   [00:11:57]               But I personally wouldn’t spend that. I had maybe $9 to my name, but my parents didn’t have the $5 for me to go. So every kid in the class got to go. But me and I actually was very embarrassed because my girlfriend at the time broke up with me because of that. Yeah. Because of that she was embarrassed that I couldn’t go and all the other kids could go. So at a young age I really did want to make money. I used to sit in church and while church service was going on, instead of listening to the minister, whatever, I would actually daydream and I actually learned at a young age that salespeople were some of the happiest people I ever met. So at 18 years old, I’m blind in my left eye. I have a right hand. It’s crippled from childhood. I’ve had seven surgeries.

Garry:                                   [00:12:37]               I’ve had my head so to six times from various accidents. So I didn’t have no college background. My father and mother, neither one even graduated high school, but we had a wonderful life, but we just didn’t have any money and I didn’t like that. So at a young age, I started in insurance business. I immediately became associated with a very wealthy man who put me under his wing and taught me the trade. At 18 I started selling insurance at, like I said, when I was 18, the very first day out in the field selling. I actually, I’m not to be graphic here, I don’t want to lose any friends by saying such a blunt word, but I actually threw up and I, I’m not a person with a weak stomach. I’m six one fairly strong, so I’m not personally, it’s week like that, but I was so scared to death.

Garry:                                   [00:13:24]               I was going to go door to door knocking on doors and ideas. And at the end of that week, uh, I had set the company sells record. I had sold the most I had ever been sold the first week out or ever in a week’s time. So I immediately knew that the Lord in his good mercy’s was having his gentle care on me. And he knew I wanted to work. He knew I wanted to labor. He knew I didn’t want no handouts. He knew I wanted to succeed and I fervently believe in. I’ve always given him the credit for putting me in a business like the insurance business. So I went on trained agents, um, built an agency of agents, not necessarily brick and mortar agency, but an agency of people and they live in various states now and I’ve been in the insurance business from 1981 to now, so that is 37 years, have made a six figure income since I was in my twenties.

Garry:                                   [00:14:17]               And, you know, life’s been good to me. I attempted or I didn’t have really attempt, but I loaded a gun when I was a teenager and almost committed suicide. I was so depressed because of your injuries. I was, I had also been sexually molested as a child by a relative. And I took care of that when I became an adult. I went and confronted him over it and took care of that issue. But, uh, I, I had all of these things in life seemingly going against me. But when I met this man at, introduced me to some very successful people. You and I were talking, we went on the air. I got to know Zig Ziglar and, and I, I got around these people that were successful. The Dean of Case Western Reserve University, Richard Osborne, I got to know him when I was young and I got around these people and the one thing understood was a never feel sorry for yourself.

Garry:                                   [00:15:06]               Don’t ever stuck your thumb and go, bless my heart. Life’s been so rough on me because nothing will sink you a cripple you faster than an emotional crutch. And so I learned real quick that I cannot feel sorry for myself just because life hasn’t been perfect. That the biggest helping hand I will ever have in my life is at the end of my own sleeve. That this is the United States of America. If you can’t be successful in America, you can’t be successful anywhere. And because I’ve traveled a decent amount like we went to China to Eou China a few months ago, I’ve understood that truly America is the land of opportunity. So I just decided to old fashioned bootstrapped, work hard, save my money and invest it. And I chose work and success over golf and fishing.

Stephen:                             [00:15:50]               And let me ask you this. It’s been good because, I mean, it’s an incredible story, but what did that man see in you? Because I think that that’s, that’s one of the things that, you know, I just met a kid the other day and I see it in him. I could just see it mean he’s me, but better at that young age and I think to myself, oh my goodness, if this kid gets a little bit of a help, some help and a push, he’s going to be phenomenal in life. And so I’m going to do that. I’m going to sow into him as I wished somebody would’ve done to me. What did this guy see in you? Because quite frankly, let’s be candid here. You, uh, you had some things not really going for you in sales, right? You are not the, the, you know, don’t get offended by this. You weren’t a Gary Cooper. You weren’t the Pierce Brosnan of today. You know, you weren’t that and yet he saw something in you and then immediately he was able to pull you up or you pull it out of you. What was it? When you look back? Well, you know, I have you asked him, I want to say

Garry:                                   [00:16:55]               yeah, well, yeah, we’re, we’re still friends and, and he’s, he’s very grateful. Obviously he’s worth a lot of money and, and uh, work gobs and gobs of money as where I’m from. That’s how we call it. And uh, and he deserves it. He’s a tremendous, terrific, terrific man. But I’m going to tell you first off to the young man you are referencing that you recently met, that is a very blessed and lucky, lucky young man to be Steven Peterson and Steven, I’m serious. I’m dead serious. And you know, and your listeners are saying the same thing right now, that is a lucky young man to meet you. And you see that in him. You know what I believe it is. I, and this may sound Corny, I don’t really mind if it does. I believe it. And you asked so I’m going to answer. I actually believe it’s God.

Garry:                                   [00:17:43]               I believe it’s the good Lord in his mercies. In a way. He watches out over good people and I was a good person that just needed somebody to love me and give me a shot at business and teach me mathematics, cashflow analysis, and teach me all of these different things about life, how to be good to people, how to have a good personality, work hard, show up early, leave late, dress for success, be honest and to teach me all those things and I believe the Lord said that’s a good guy and if I prosper him, he’ll do good in this world. And I really do. Honestly, I think I just don’t think there’s any other answer other than it’s God in his good mercy’s looking down and saying, you know what? I’m gonna. Throw this person to bone. I’m going to give this person blessings by letting them meet somebody that can pass on to another generation how to be successful.

Stephen:                             [00:18:33]               And that’s what I want to ask you. Have you been able to do the same? And if so, what did you see in those people? Because there’s so many people that would have said, hey, you know, I didn’t go to college. I mean, I, I, I, I resent when people say that now really successful. I mean, I know a lot of successful Amazon sellers that didn’t go to college and they, they’re sort of embarrassed by it. And here I’m thinking to myself, you’ve left, you’ve got the best education of anybody because you’re having incredible success. What did college, what college do for you? Here I am a college graduate and I’m thinking to myself, man, you’ve got it figured out to me that’s, that’s the best. Uh, the best you could start with is if you figured out some people need college to get it figured out, but if you could figure it out without it. Good for you. So were you able to do this?

Garry:                                   [00:19:17]               Yeah. You know what? I would have loved to have had college. I didn’t go because I didn’t want to. I didn’t go because I couldn’t, I didn’t have no parents pushing me toward that young enough to get a strong enough, you know, GPA or whatever. So I didn’t have that. So I had to go into the blue collar type arena and intro to excel and a to a higher level and I did. And there’s four as if I’ve helped others. Yeah, but I believe I have A. I have a person that works for me now. It makes a multiple six figure income and has for years. He, this particular person is the highest sales person in one of our underwriters that we worked for, which is a fortune 500 company. He’s number one in the entire company and he works with my team. I hired him in a little hotel room interviewing him years ago off of a blind ad in a newspaper.

Garry:                                   [00:20:05]               And I told him that if you listen to me to everything I tell you to do and never questioned it, as long as it doesn’t violate the laws of God or man do everything I asked you to do. And if you do, I promise you you’ll make more money than you’ve ever made. He looked me square in the eye and he said I will. And he has a beautiful, makes tremendous income. And so yeah, I, you know, I, I hope to think I have now I have six grandchildren, we have six grandchildren, so now I would like to sell a little bit of that in their lives so that when I’m gone, it can be some seeds of that. Continue on.

Stephen:                             [00:20:37]               Hmm. You know, let’s move it forward to Amazon. Right? So you’ve embraced that. Have you embraced the same approach in selling to Amazon? Because there is, there’s two schools of thought and they’re both probably right for them. There’s one is, hey, what’s mine is mine, you know, Gary, I like it, but you know, businesses bitter. I’m in, I’m in business to make money, period. And so therefore, you know, I’m not sharing my knowledge with you. And then there were others who openly share and in my experience, now you can tell them where I’m a little more biased, is they get rewarded for sharing. Um, and then we’ll share everything. Of course not, but they share 98 percent of it sometimes and they get rewarded and sometimes rewarded and rewarded and rewarded for that. Where you lie in that,

Garry:                                   [00:21:27]               you know, that I was just propped up on my hand, listen to your talk thinking I could listen to him, explained some of this all day long. You and I both are. You are really good friends with someone that I look up to. Highly advanced. Andy. Andy is just a terrific big hearted guy that seemingly makes the whole world better. Uh, and Andy has done a lot of that. He’s given to people from his heart and so on. And, and, uh, I do any give to the all the boys that he took care of before we got in the Amazon space. So you and I both know that there is a strong sowing and reaping. Actually I want to say this, there’s a bible verse a and all of us, regardless of religion, no this verse and it talks about as a man sows that shall he also reap.

Garry:                                   [00:22:10]               And, and we all know that when I was raised, uh, Mr Peterson, I was always kind of taught that verse as a negative. You know, my mother scolding. Yeah, exactly. They would say, if you so bad, you know you’re going to eat bad and and so on, and it was really beat into me. Of course that’s true. But if you, if any of us take any version of the Bible you want to take, go on down and read the end of that parable. The very last of that says, uh, and it, and I don’t have it in front of me, but it’s very clear. It’s a very positive statement and it says for induced season, you shall reap if you think not. And it goes on Dan. And it ends up in a very positive way. And, and that’s what I think a lot of people miss about the sowing and reaping.

Garry:                                   [00:22:56]               They view a lot of times just the negative connotation of it that if I do bad, I’ll get back. But the opposite side of that is if you do good, you will get good in mysterious ways. And one place in the Bible it says, have you not report you, you’re not. And the answer to that is you scratch your head and go, well yeah Lord, I have. Okay, well that’s because you didn’t so here but you read, but you sewed over there and you didn’t reap over there. I do believe if you’re a good person and you live good and you share freely and tried to not, of course it helps to have people on the other end who can accept your free giving and not stab you in the back with it or screw you with it. That’s always the whole count. The dichotomy here.

Garry:                                   [00:23:37]               The opposite end of the parallel is how do you do that? How do you freely so to people that won’t take advantage of you because you and I both I’m sure have been took of so and it steams when it happened, but you have to try to get back to that, that sowing and reaping from the positive aspect and because I do believe that it’s there and the whole Amazon space, it has been a little bit difficult for me to see in the insurance business. If I share that way, I still get a residual. I still get something. If I help you to become successful in the Amazon space, it’s. It has to come indirect. There’s no direct way I can sit down with a John Doe out here and show them how to do xY, , Z, and directly profit, so I have to have faith, uh, and do it knowing that I’m going to get it in some indirect way as you have an andy has and others.

Stephen:                             [00:24:22]               Well, give me an example. Have you gotten indirect help?

Garry:                                   [00:24:26]               Actually, yes. I have recently on a trip to China with or another group of people that were going over there to work that market over there and they were mostly all either shopify sellers or Amazon sellers. We met one gentleman that was in our group that’s so 22 million last year on shopify and by me freely sharing with someone there that was paid to be in this group who was kinda down and out and know we’re near our level or this guy’s level or other levels. This guy that sells so much on shopify, who’s name I’ll leave nameless here because he does know training. He heard me working, heard me and my wife working with this woman and her husband and he came up to me and grabbed me by the arm and he said, I’d like to give you some, uh, some free training. He said, I’ve never seen anybody that would do what you did.

Garry:                                   [00:25:16]               And uh, he, this guy was raised by his grandparents and didn’t have a lot of strong family and he said, I would like to meet with you and your wife. So he met with us and sat down and started giving us the basics of facebook advertising and shopify. And he spent a four over 4 million last year on facebook ads, so 22 million and his margins are incredible and he does it all through buying product and he would. So the point was here, I’m helping somebody that’s really lower on the food chain, so to speak. And the economics of ECOMMERCE. He hears, it calls me over to the side. I now have his skype connection. I now have his email address, his facebook and I occasionally I send him assault. Small, simple question and you know, it’s worked out great and um, I’m trying to learn that arena because that’s new to me and I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed so I Kinda have to have a little bit of help and he’s doing that. So yes, I just recently have had that to happen to me where I felt blessed big time by a big player just because he saw me trying to help somebody that was actually very low on the totem pole.

Stephen:                             [00:26:22]               So cool. Let’s say give without expectation. That’s to me, you know, we give a lot, but it’s when you do it with no expectation, magically magic happens. All right, so you decide, hey, I was thinking about this because I think most people would say, well Gary, you know, you kind of have an advantage. You know, you’ve been running a business for a time, you’ve got that business acumen. We clearly have that business education. I can hear it in your voice. Just the way you’re talking about, you’re dropping names like zig ziglar. I mean this is, this is real. You have a big advantage going into this Amazon business because you understand business, so therefore some might even call you just lucky. What would you say to that?

Garry:                                   [00:27:06]               Well, I tell you what, I, uh, I understand why a person would say that, but I also understand that this what I don’t have is that okay to be successful at anything. I don’t care if it’s raising cattle, running a trucking business, of which I owned a trucking company one time. And um, I don’t, I’ve owned other businesses. I don’t care what it is you do in life to be successful at anything. There’s two things you got to do. First you got to learn the tools of your trade just like Michael Angelo or anybody else. You got to learn whether you’re a sculptor, painter, whatever. You can learn that in watching one video on youtube, the end, you have to turn it into art and that and see that’s what you’ve done. When you listen to Steven Peterson to us and Andy Slams, you understand that they learned the tools and then they turned it into an art.

Garry:                                   [00:27:53]               And that’s what separates the winners from the losers. Anybody can learn how to scan in a walmart or a target. That’s tools. Artwork is, could you go into a walmart target without your scanning app on your phone and make a decision? I actually have done it as a test just for fun and found out, you know, I could just about do an reo, a business without a scanning app because I can look and know, yep, that’s hot, that’ll work. The price reduction is good enough or a good exit point to be able to get out if it doesn’t work. So the, so artistically learning all the tools is what makes people successful. And you know, that’s not taught enough in business school about learning the tools but develop the art. The art is something that’s subconscious. It’s like muscle reflex of uh, you know, Michael Jordan or whatever.

Garry:                                   [00:28:44]               I mean to learn artistically how to do x, Y, z is the key, the pinnacle to succeed at this business or any business. It’s not the tools and to many people when they take pl courses or whatever, they focused on tools. They focus on jungle scout viral launch and if I do x, do y, but then you’ve got that whole element. If you get ahead the yeast in the bread for the bread to rise without the yeast, it won’t rise. The yeast is the artistic ability to be able to use the tools in a productive manner, which we’re just going into the peo space. Um, you know, I, I shared with you via chat a week ago that we had took a three previous po courses and had never launched a product. And now let’s stop there a second. Why? Why? Well, I didn’t choose to launch because I think that’s important to go back to.

Garry:                                   [00:29:33]               Yes it is. And I don’t mind at all. It kind of embarrassing myself here in Canada revealing just how smart I’m not. I don’t think you’re embarrassing yourself. I think you’re being real and I think people need to hear it because everybody makes it look easy. It’s not easy, Gary. No, it’s not. And I’m going to tell you, when I started doing the pl for the fourth time, I went through two of Andy’s courses. So Andy was always my backup and still is his, all of his facebook page. You’re going to learn stuff, but here’s why I didn’t. I had the insurance industry, my wife was doing, ran away and it was successful and we were making $80,000, $100,000 a year doing it and because, like I said, in three years with a little over 2 million so you can do the math on that. And so the problem I was having a steven was, I didn’t have enough energy left to really spend time in front of a computer screen doing all of the research.

Garry:                                   [00:30:30]               So if you’ll let me, I’d like to tell a little story concerning andy. We were at the prosper show, uh, at asd 2017. You actually were there, are seeing you at a distance a one day in that big meeting room where we all ate at and I looked and there’s andy standing there getting a cup of coffee. And I had never personally met Andy, although I’d been these course. So I stepped over next to him. Of course he’s all buff and good luck in. And I’m not, so I stepped over next to him and elbowed him and I said, hey, andy and I introduced myself and of course he knew who I was because I was named as in each group. So we started chatting, fixing cup of coffee, and I said, Andy, I’ve got a problem. I want to launch pl like the rest of you.

Garry:                                   [00:31:09]               But the problem I’ve got, I feel like I’m going to have to shut down not and already business in order to do the pl. So Andy was very respectful to me. He did. He didn’t treat my comment a lightly or rudely. He looked at me very seriously. He said, well, if you don’t mind me asking, what are you all selling them off? I said, we’re doing 60,000 to $120,000 a month. And I said our best month was 180,000 during q four. And he said, oh my, I don’t know if I don’t think you should shut that down. So we went ahead and shared it and got our picture, took together and so on. And as time went on, I pondered, I was not going to waste his simple comment about, oh my, I don’t think you should shut that down. And as time went on, I understood that man gave me the best answer he could give me.

Garry:                                   [00:31:56]               He did me a big favor in Stephen. Here’s why I do not need someone’s permission or approval to be successful. Hi, Gary Ray. Have enough sense to know to be successful, you have to suffer. And if you’re not willing to suffer, the first letter in a word suffers s for a dollar sign. If you’re not willing to suffer, you will not be successful at anything. In too many. Unfortunately, young people come out nowadays not understanding the importance of suffering while I have suffered. Okay? I’ve had seven surgeries, I’ve had a lot of physical suffering, so I know pain is part of the process with there is no pain or is no gang. So as time went on and almost another went by, I finally realized, wait a minute, I’m going to have to shut this [inaudible]. I’m going to have to shut down as a way in or thing or at least cut it way back so that I have enough brain energy to sit down with jungle Scout, viral launch, whatever, to sit down and get this all figured out

Stephen:                             [00:32:57]               their second because Gary, that means you failed. If you have to shut it down, that means you failed. That’s the only thing that’s an unfortunately. That’s what some people believe. They can’t see that sometimes. That’s when the opportunities come. Correct. Absolutely.

Garry:                                   [00:33:14]               We had a full time employee to that work for us and here this person was dependent upon us buying product for their job and the door opened to where this person wanting to start their own accounts and we let them so they started their own account so that relieved any emotional pressure I had of keeping that person in a job and I just said, this is it. I’m going to do this. I am going to go to China. I want to go look at product. I want to search ideas. I’m going to do this. These people are not smarter than I am. The problem is I’m not putting the time into this in front of the computer to learn this so

Stephen:                             [00:33:48]               well. I want to stop you again. Yup. Because I don’t want to lose this point. Remember I asked you earlier about if you had sewn into anybody as you were sewn into what you just described to me is such a power pro tip. When you’re going to pivot and you’re affecting other people’s lives, and I don’t know if this was a man or a woman, but you didn’t leave them by the side of the road. You prop them up and set them up for probably the most success they could ever have in their life, and so I don’t want you to lose track of that. That’s a powerful thing and I think people listening, if they’re ever thinking about this, it’s the best example I’ve heard of. Anyone say how to take and deal with somebody they care about. I mean, obviously this person worked for you and cared about you. You’ve given them. You’ve taught them the fish. Gary, I mean, I have have that sunk in. Remember I asked you about whether you sowed into somebody and you didn’t get me this example. That’s powerful stuff.

Garry:                                   [00:34:45]               Just so you know, I don’t think it occurred to me as clear as it is right now as I’m looking at my office window since I heard you describe that

Stephen:                             [00:34:52]               powerful stuff caring and can tell you anybody listening. This is a great opportunity. What Gary just describe you. You set them up now they and it’s not like they owe you. I don’t mean it that way, but there is now a deeper relationship. That relationship goes so much deeper, so when you need help and Gary, you will need help. There’s somebody there. You gave me the tingles. Sorry. Sorry. I’m going to get there, but I just don’t. I’ve never heard anybody say that before and I’m telling you that is powerful stuff right there.

Garry:                                   [00:35:21]               Well, you know what? This has been worth my time to do this because you just showed me something because there was a little bit of a little selfish side of me that felt like, you know what? I did this and taught this business and for two years they’ve been working for us and learning everything of how to do this and now they’re doing their own thing, but I, I blessed them and I, I’ve helped them since they’ve left. They’ve asked for advice I’ve given to them, but hearing you describe that now does make me feel a little warmer and I and I needed to. I’m sometimes I’m pretty shallow sometimes I’m not as deep as I should be as you’re a man. I tried ads. Exactly right. I am. I’m very money oriented and sometimes that can put a real challenge on my Christian nature and on my inner heart, so thank you for that Steven. That was pretty nice. You to point that out.

Stephen:                             [00:36:08]               The real deal and like I said, I haven’t had anybody say what they did there. I’ve heard of people saying I had to let people go and to me, guess what? My new advice is going to be, Hey, let me tell you about a guy named Gary Ray and what he was able to do, and I’m bending. A whole bunch of people would say, Oh really?

Garry:                                   [00:36:27]               So anyway. All right, well thank you. That’s very cool. Give me the tingles. All right, go ahead. I’m sorry. We’ve now we’ve launched a not launched. I got to get the terminology correct. We now have nine products that are currently being manufactured. Uh, two of them are being shipped tomorrow. The other seven will be on a container coming first of July. So we’re, we’ve now got the whole pl thing going. We’ve got, we’ve yet to make our first sale with it, but we feel like we’ve got probably 75 or 80 percent of the hard part behind us. When you think about what you’ve learned,

Stephen:                             [00:37:02]               you should be, because look at all that you’ve learned all this way and now you’re just doing the last piece, right? You guys, especially if you’ve been doing oa and Ra, you guys know how to pack, you know, what tape to use as we at least tease about, right? You know, how to, you know, a process. You’ve got all that stuff figured out. You’re now in that last phase, which at 56 year old, 56 years old is a pretty cool twist on this, isn’t it? I mean, because it’s like we, we created this.

Garry:                                   [00:37:29]               Yeah, and I think probably that’s what excites me after so many years of being an insurance business is the fact of the actual creation from down to how to design the gift box to everything that we’ve done here. Yeah. It’s a full. It’s our baby, so to speak, and now I’m looking forward to doing the launching and doing the PPC and doing the giveaways and whatever to get to page one. Been studying all that. So all of that I’m, I’m pumped for. But I do want to give credit to this. Honestly, Steven, if it hadn’t been for Andy saying what he said to me out there in Vegas when he said, I don’t think you ought to shut that down. I think I probably would never have done it because when he said that a created the reverse effect in me of wait a minute, ah, I don’t want to ever look back and blame him and say, well, you know, Andy Slavitt, Ostomy, I should shut this down, you know, that would be disrespectful.

Garry:                                   [00:38:19]               That’d be very immature, but I don’t have to have the Amazon business. We make a good living off the insurance industry. We eat so to speak and pay the rent if you want to put it that way. But I really want to succeed big in the Amazon space and we know we had done really well in the RNA, but the peo space had evaded us and now I know why I have enough energy to do it. So I had to go from 60 to a hundred and $20,000 a month down to 18 to 20,000 a month, which is just stuff she picks up easily. Uh, which is what we’re doing now until we launched the peel and get it going. So.

Stephen:                             [00:38:53]               So you took a step back, right? Yeah. You took a step back steps? Yeah. Yeah, we did, but you enemy ask you this and I’m assuming the answer is going to be pretty smart because you’re a smart guy. The stuff that you, you cherry picked what you step back into fair, correct. Right. So there’s a smart move, right? You already knew, you know, and I’m guilty of this so I’m not holier than now and I don’t pretend to be because I’ve done it, so please everybody understand that. But it’s so easy to say, wow, you know, I’ve got a box. Go in there anyway. What? You not only make a dollar on these things, let me just throw it in. It’s taken up the space, right. That’s what we all have rationalized that I have. I have a warehouse full of rationalization that I keep moving as a funny dean acres is, as a Ceo Guy who’s coaching me a little bit and he said to me, Steve, he’s like, that inventory is like an old girlfriend that you keep dragging around with you, isn’t it?

Stephen:                             [00:39:42]               And I’m like, Oh God, it’s so. And he’s got that southern voice too. And I’m like, yeah, you’re right dean, you know, but it’s true. And so because you were smart about this because you took a different look at it, maybe with a different lens through Andy’s eyes, you’re like, Hey, I’m going to step back, but I’m going to step back a into. I always call it hassle less stuff. I don’t want the hassles in my life. So you get rid of the stuff that’s a hassle. You get rid of the low margin stuff that you were doing because you were doing it anyway and now all of a sudden you’re, my bed is, you’re more efficient because you want to get, you only have so much time to dedicate this because the rest of your time is developing products

Garry:                                   [00:40:18]               fair. That’s correct. Yeah. And, and I’m really excited right now because now for the first time and do I dare want to say a decade, decade and a half, I actually have butterflies. Oh. And I haven’t had that, you know, honestly, since I was probably. Yeah,

Stephen:                             [00:40:31]               you’re 56, dude, you’re supposed to be playing golf and you know you’re going to be integrated soon. I mean

Garry:                                   [00:40:38]               over thousand dollars set of the tailor made sitting in a garage now that I haven’t cracked this year. A lot of times when I go play golf or do anything like that, I just like, Eh, just seemed to be working and I just like to work. I mean money is kind of a scorecard and what I can do with it charity or with my children or grandchildren, my church, all of that matters to me. And uh, I just, I don’t know, I just like to work. I’ve always found I could go on vacation and come back to work and actually relaxed more at work than I did on vacation.

Stephen:                             [00:41:08]               So not to say that too. I got to get back to work, to relax. I just,

Garry:                                   [00:41:12]               I kind of enjoy it, but it’s because I do something I enjoy, but the pl thing may not tell you what, whenever we get some sales cranky with that and I really think we will. We’ve used all of the intelligent software to find it. Then we used a pick food and some other services to help make sure that images and barriers things were number one that would compete well. Uh, so I really think we’ve got all of our ducks in a row and I’m just looking for, you know, to be successful, you’ve got to understand suffering, but you’ve also got to become a good student. And I think part of what was causing me not to be a good student with Andy’s courses was because I wasn’t taking the time to shut everything else off and learning will. Now we have. And uh, I’m, I’m really excited about it. I’m looking forward to a whole new chapter,

Stephen:                             [00:41:55]               you know, as I sit here and listen to you talk about being a good student. Somebody who didn’t go to college, somebody who’s old, like old. Yup. Yup. Uh, and again, I’m old too, so I can say that you have embraced it. I mean, I guess most people egotistically especially men, would say, you know, I already know that, you know, I listened to and of course I didn’t know all that. Yeah. Right. You don’t. And being man enough to admit it and being open enough to listen to somebody who’s much younger than you. Somebody you know who’s, you know, listening to a little nate, I always call them little nate because nate little nate, but little date, you know, he’s 24 or something like that, but he’s like one of the smartest guys you’ll ever meet and he’s like the best dad ever. But it’s just the fact that you can listen to him and learned from him because you’re open to learning. That’s what it is. I think it’s, and again, as a guy, it’s so hard. I’m the guy who won’t ask directions. I’m that guy. I know I am, but yet to be the, again, this kid, I’m going to use this kid Ben, who I just connected with. Um, he talks about being vulnerable. That’s what it is. Gary. You’re being vulnerable. Exactly.

Garry:                                   [00:43:06]               Yeah. That’s exactly what I’m gonna I’m gonna tell you something as we continue down this path and I know you and I both have a desire to really want to try to help people that may be down and out or close to feeling bad and that’s probably what this interview probably is more geared toward the knee because it’s definitely probably not going to help superstars, but maybe for somebody struggling out there, maybe it’ll help them, uh, but that truly is having the ability to understand your weaknesses. Was Steven, one of mine? He was, and I can’t believe I’m telling you some hair, but I am. I’m going to do it. One of mine is the ability to read now, not to read. I can read fine and read fast, but only have one eye now. If you looked at me, you would know that, but I’m blind in my left eye so to sit and read on.

Garry:                                   [00:43:46]               I have two monitors here in my office that I work off of to set and constantly read that hours and hours with lines and all of this is hard on me really hard on me. Especially if I don’t have to have the money, it’s really hard on me. So I discovered that my wife, she can read three or four times faster than I can if she reads a story. And it says that man, sit down by 100 year old white oak tree. As the sun was in the east casting, it’s shade to the West. All she gets out of it is man, sit down by a tree. What I’m getting at, I was 100 year old and it’s a wide open, not a rideau. The sons in the east, she had us to the West. See, I’m getting all them little details. So what I learned to do was do the private label was uh, because she really is so pumped up and she’s just the world’s best spouse and she’s really smart, but she has fear about taking action and doing things.

Garry:                                   [00:44:37]               She has a fear of losing money and so on. I don’t, I’m a risk taker. So what I did was I would share with her, can I get you to learn this because you can read this and half the time I can. So you learn this, tell me what it says to do. I’ll go do it. So she would read this stuff, whether it’s Andy’s courses or whatever. We’ve had some other courses. She would read this stuff and she’d say, okay, here’s what you do, do this. Click, click, click, click, click. And I’ll say, I got it and I’d go with it and that actually is what launched us forward in this. But I finally had to swallow my ego back up and say, sweetheart, can you just do all the reading and just tell me and then I’ll take it and do it. He, but she’s doing it through her risk filter. So you’re getting her version of it, which makes her comfortable because her risk filter gets through there. You’re listening to your wife. How long have you been married, Gary? Uh, she’s actually my childhood sweetheart. She’s the first girl I ever kissed when I was 11 years old, but we did not marry well together. You got together. So you’ve been together nine. Mentally.

Stephen:                             [00:45:36]               Okay. Yeah. Because of that, the fact that you’re listening to it, that’s what makes relationships worked right there. You allow her to have her risk filter put into place. So can you give me the tingles? I’m telling you, you know, when you think about it, and I understand that we’re not giving private label advice. Here’s what you need to do. This is the way you place your ad and you put this comma here and you know what, there are a lot of smart people than me who’s going to give you that advice? I want you to hear that we’re human. You know, here’s two old dudes saying we’re going to be vulnerable. We’re going to talk about the things that aren’t so good about us. Because guess what? Look deep in yourself. You got them to, you want to deny you have them. It’ll come up to you someday and they will catch up to you owning up to it and understanding, being self aware as Gary V. Oh, he says, peace.

Stephen:                             [00:46:22]               Be Self aware, you know, and then be willing to find others that can help with that. Um, and we were talking pre show about Andy and I and our warehouse, you know, and I, I suggest to people all the time when they’re talking about getting a warehouse, I’m like, find somebody else to partner with because it gives you rewards that you just don’t know that we ever knew that you would ever get. And to me, I just think it’s such a powerful way to have somebody else that you have a relationship with and now your relationship even goes deeper and it just, it just pays back. And again, that’s a guy and it’s hard for a guy to admit that I don’t know everything Gary. I just don’t.

Garry:                                   [00:47:00]               That’s exactly right. And you know, you and I were talking before we started recording zig ziglar years ago when I was in my twenties. He shared with me and a group of other people sitting around a, at his house one night when my boss took me down to Dallas to go to church at First Baptist Church there in Dallas. And, and, and zig invited us over to his house. One of the things I learned from Zig, and I’m sitting there all, you know, eager eared, so to speak, wanted to hear anything he would have to say was that none of us are as together as we appear. Everybody is two steps, some insanity and every one of us are a little messed up. Every one of us or hurt, every one of us had been hurt. We’re all struggling so to speak. Even if we seemingly are flying high, we really aren’t.

Garry:                                   [00:47:40]               Every one of us are just making it, trying to. Some of us maybe making it a higher level income wise, but we’re all just making it and that is absolutely the truth. And when you admit that in the mirror, it really helps you to relax more. And I think it makes success a whole lot easier when you can just get through that facade and quit being fake and say, you know, I’ve got to be a student. I got to be a kindergarten student. Even though I’m six one, you know, 250 pounds. I got to sit in a desk and I got to learn like a kindergarten student because I want to do. Nobody’s making me do this. I want to do this. I want to get into that club, so to speak, that Po club. So I’ve got to learn all this and I’ve got to do all this and, and I’m excited.

Garry:                                   [00:48:18]               You know, the middle two letters in the word life is f l Ife and 50 percent of life is a chance, but the other 50 percent is intentional. You know, I’ve heard you and others say all the time that that success is intentional. Success leaves clues. Well, so does failure. Failure can also be intentional. Failure also leaves clues and if you want to be a failure, there are specific things that if you do these things, you will flat tell you’re not dropping out without telling us some. Go for it, cause I was gonna say give me some of those. One of the specific things you can do that will guarantee that you will be a failure in life is always acting as though you’re the biggest best at anything you do. Because when you do that, your spouse is not going to listen to you. Your children are going to turn a deaf ear to ear, your boss is going to kick your butt because people don’t like that.

Garry:                                   [00:49:08]               So you need to be able to quickly say, oh, I messed up, sorry about that. I screwed up. And when you can do that, that’s one of the biggest keys to success. And it’s one of the biggest reasons I have a. have a clue. I’ll just say this, my brother who will ever hear this recording, but my brother and I love him dearly, but my brother would never admit failure. If he spilled a glass of water in your house, he would not be his fault. And he, he has a miserable failure of a life because of it. And we’ve all probably got brothers, cousins, sisters, parents, whatever that we can say this too. So I think, I think failure is. I used to do some, some, uh, speakings where I would get hired to do some public speaking and I had a school system in Illinois that would hire me and go around and give these talks to their various school teachers.

Garry:                                   [00:49:54]               And one of the things I gave them was this presentation I had called AIDS aid, yes, attitude and destructive state. And I would teach about how aids, the blood disease aids, how it slowly breaks down your, your antibodies and your inside your body. And it causes you then to get all kinds of illnesses and eventually you die from it. But so I translated that into the mental aids and simply share with people that if you had these symptoms, you had aids, you have an attitude and destructive state and it’s going to ruin your marriage. It’s going to ruin your finances. It’s going to ruin your. And here they are a, b, c, d. If you’re prone to jealousy all the time. If you’ve got to be the center of attention. And there’s. And there’s a whole list of things that I created here that if you do these things, you’ve got to aids and you’re going to be a huge failure. And I just believed that as success leaves clues, I also believe that failure does too.

Stephen:                             [00:50:45]               Love that. I’ve never heard it said that way. Failure leaves clues also. It’s always success and yet, you know, um, and you shouldn’t run away from failure. You should just learn from it. You understand it and you don’t want to repeat it. What are some of the habits, because I know we’re getting to the end, but I don’t want to miss this because I could tell that, you know, to be successful for 37 years in the same industry, especially starting at 18, you know, obviously that gentleman saw something in you and he recognized that you had that skill. He just helped pull it out of you. But what are some of the personal habits that you would look back at that have allowed you to have the success you have consistently and now in the Amazon world?

Garry:                                   [00:51:26]               That’s a good question. I had nothing rehearsed or scripted for that, so I’ll just. That’s good. That’s what I answer out of me. I would say, I’ll say this,

Garry:                                   [00:51:35]               I personally have worked my entire life and insurance industry, but I can actually tell you that I don’t necessarily enjoy it. I don’t know that I ever have, but yet I have a great life. You can listen to me until I’m not somebody that’s depressed or full of anxiety and I think what’s caused me to be successful there. I put into other areas and it’s the ability to suffer gladly, joyfully understanding that work in labor and sweat and blood is part of life. Don’t run from it. Embrace it. Have a good attitude while you’re doing it. Just as I had in a hospital room recuperating from an eye surgery where I lost my I, you just, you just be thankful you’ve got the one eye and you press on with the key and I think Anthony Robbins is probably one of the first ones I ever heard really explained as well.

Garry:                                   [00:52:21]               The key is to do what successful people do when you don’t feel successful. Do what needs to be done when you don’t feel like doing it. That’s the key to Larry Bird and that’s the key to all the people in life who have been wildly successful is when they’re up, they perform a certain way, but when they’re down, they perform almost the same way. They still go do and it’s the same thing in Amazon business. If you’re already in La and and that’s what you’re going to do. Don’t Ra and La when you feel good, ran away all the time, whether you feel good or whether you don’t, you do the same thing. I’m going to treat my wife good weather. I feel like treating her good or whether I don’t feel like treating her good. I’m going to do the same thing either way. Regardless, you know emotions are dangerous.

Garry:                                   [00:53:01]               Emotions are like waves on a beach that can look so sweet and loving and kind, but you let the wrong kind of way an under the waterway, black, a riptide. You let it get a hold of you. It can kill you. And Steven, you and I both know a lot of people that the wrong kind of emotion, jealousy, anger, lust, are all emotions, the wrong kind of emotion. Get Ahold of a person, we’ll destroy. I mean absolute wipe them out, bankrupt of they’ll, they’ll just ruin their self emotionally. Nearly ended up being her fifties and sixties. Alcoholics addicted to drugs or whatever.

Stephen:                             [00:53:34]               One part of their life. It infects the other parts when you let that in. Absolutely.

Garry:                                   [00:53:39]               And I think as a young age, even up till now, it was simply the ability to do what needed to be done. Whether I felt like it or not. I think probably that’s, that’s number one. It doesn’t sound sexy, but I really do believe it’s the key to the Carl Icahn’s and Andy’s landmines and Steven Peterson’s and everybody else. They do what needs to be done. Whether they feel like it or not.

Stephen:                             [00:54:00]               That’s powerful. You agree to that? I do. I sit back and I think about when life hasn’t gone so well. It’s because I’ve become lazy. Um, I get that envy sneaks in every so often and you know, I’m a guy and so real. And so when I don’t pay attention, my weight creeps up, right? And all of a sudden I’m like, oh, what’s going on? Well, you didn’t push back from the table. You kept lifting that fork when you shouldn’t have, you didn’t. I can tell you all the reasons I didn’t make it to the gym. Let me tell you, gary, they’re real. However, when I made it this morning, I feel like a million bucks right now. Here it is, noon my time. I feel like a million bucks. I can’t wait to get to the next thing to the next. I mean I’m excited about the day. Why? Because I made it to the gym. So did I feel it going this morning? You know? No, but I did. And now you know, so all those examples and so absolutely. I agree with you. One hundred percent.

Garry:                                   [00:54:54]               We’re good. Thank you. I, I, you inspired me. Just listen to you talk there. I, I appreciate that. I need that too.

Stephen:                             [00:54:59]               Well, I think, I think that’s the takeaway that I’m going to take away carry from this conversation is that we all need it. I mean, nobody’s perfect, right? There’s, it’s just, it’s just a matter of you’re at a stage and you’re in this stage because you chose to get there. Now I understand life happens and life has happened to Gary. I think Gary would tell you, life has happened to him right here in a couple of ways and some not so good. Right? But you are where you are because you were intentional because you didn’t define yourself by that. You didn’t, you know, all those different things that you could have defined yourself by and you’ve got a lot more than me that you could have labeled yourself and said, that’s me. And

Garry:                                   [00:55:40]               yeah, the inspiration comes from when you see people, uh, Mr Peterson that’s lost their legs and they go wheelchair shopping, you know, that’s a great inspiration. How all of us should be when there was a lady years ago deep. Oh, it’s truth. It really is. There was a lady, and I’m sorry, I can’t remember her name, if anybody knows who it is, maybe they can post it, but there was a lady that went, she was raped, really horrible situation and she ended up going on a speaker circuit and ended up writing books about what happened and how to get through it, and I read her book even though I’m a guy, I still read the book and I thought, wow, matt, gosh, this woman is telling it like it is, and the biggest thing is you don’t feel sorry for yourself. If you lose your legs, you go shopping for wheelchair if you’re an I.

Garry:                                   [00:56:24]               In no way am I saying that to be trite. Don’t nobody think that I’m serious. This is coming from a guidance blind in one eye. I know what it’s like to have these challenges. You know, I’ll walk into walls and I made. I had my physical challenges like that too, but I really do believe that that is the key and the mastery to life to a success, and that is when stuff happens, you just suck it up and you go forth and become successful. You enter the paralympics, you do things to these. You do not feel sorry for yourself. You cannot sit around and suck your thumb and go, woe is me. Bless my heart, lesbian so rough on me because there’s nobody gonna bail you out. This is the United States of America. If you can’t be successful here, you can’t be successful anywhere. And I recently read that there’s more wealth than the United States and there’s ever been in any country in world history, but I was like, wow, really? And in this life, that’s incredible. If we can’t be successful now in this time in history, we would have never made it in the old days and I’m thankful that I live in the time that I do. It’s just now. What are you going to do with it?

Stephen:                             [00:57:23]               Well, being the age we are, that we’re still so lucky. I consider myself so lucky to be able to play in this. I just got andy came the other day and he brings this oculus go this a virtual reality thing. He say, wait, you try this thing. I put it on. I took it off and I immediately ordered it literally that second and I consider myself so lucky to be able to be in this world at this age and we’re old dudes. I don’t mean it that way. I’m teasing when I say that, but it’s. We’re fortunate to be able to restart in this where I came from, the old newspaper world, right? Traditional media 30 years and now to be able to do it in this world, the current world and stay. I’m nowhere as advanced as everybody, but I get to play a little bit in it and it’s just such a cool thing and I think we’re blessed because we’re willing to do the work and I, I think so much of it is what you’re saying. Just get up and go forward and yes, it’s not easy and that to me is the best part that it’s not easy. That means there was a barrier to entry. That means the cream will rise to the top. That means if you do the work, you can be successful. I just heard somebody say that if you, uh, if you do the work, you can be successful. That choice is really up to you.

Garry:                                   [00:58:36]               I agree a thousand percent and it, and I’m hoping everybody that listens to this pass this down to their children, their spouses, their church members, people in their bowling leagues, whatever. This is a great time in history and we all should embrace it. Work hard, be good to people, be good to each other, be good to this world. We all could make this a better planet. And at the same time, I think we all can make a lot of money doing it too.

Stephen:                             [00:58:57]               You know, one more thing I want to say about this because I was thinking about this earlier when you were talking, um, and those people that judge you or look down at you or speak negative about you. I heard this from somebody else. They said, you know, you’re not in their shoes. You don’t know their circumstances. If you were in that same set of circumstances given and dealing with whatever they’re dealing with because I usually think they must have some challenges going on in their life, you might make the choice. So stop judging them or that’s a truth. It’s like, Ooh, when somebody said that, I’m like, that sat on my chest, that’s that hard on my chest. I’m like, man, because I’ve been that guy and it’s like, no, you don’t know. And so I just try to get people to bend. I’m like, man, he must be just going through a tough time whenever I get the criticism and I do.

Stephen:                             [00:59:38]               And it’s like I understand man, you know, I’m not going to connect with everybody. I don’t pretend that I can. And so that’s cool. You know, when I think about this conversation, I think there’s so much here. I think there’s so much depth because I just think people need to just listen to it again and just realize you’re in there somewhere. Every person listening to this has heard something they connected with and Gary’s story. Um, I think they just got to realize that there’s another side to it wherever they’re at and just move past it. Like you say, just keep going forward. Gary, what would you. Well, let me ask you this. What’s the best way? If somebody has a followup question for you before I close?

Garry:                                   [01:00:17]               Uh, they can find me on facebook. It’s Gary with two r’s, Ga, double r, y last name, Ray r a y and you and I are friends on another. So you should see some friends to tie me in who I am.

Stephen:                             [01:00:30]               Alright. And I’m going to put that link out there because I just think it’s important. I just think that there’s somebody listening who’s going to be like, man, I need this. I need this guy in my life. And that’s a very cool. I feel richer right now, right by the second, I’m fuel. So much wealthier. Um, what I want you to do, and I know you’ve given a bunch of them, but I want you to dig deeper and I want you to say there’s somebody who’s, who’s probably on the edge of giving up today. I’m walking away from their business, walking away from their marriage, walking away from their friends walking away because it’s just too hard. Can you give us something that you would suggest they do to push through that, to pull through it, to reach out, to do something different to get a better result? Wow. That’s really. I know. I didn’t mean to do that to you, but I can tell that this is the way the conversation goes

Garry:                                   [01:01:20]               and I guarantee you the best answer I’ll have will probably be tomorrow after this recording is okay. But I will tell you that very first thing that came to my mind and the first thing that came to my mind is since most of us have some faith, some form of religious faith that we all probably was instilled in us. And as, as a child, I would say resort back to that. Um, I give a grill quick 45 second story and maybe paint the analogy. A couple of years ago I bought a new corvette and I had it delivered it to court, National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, which I lived near Bowling Green. So let’s count them my hometown. So the, they contacted me and they said, you know, you have a new, a 2015 stingray and we’re going to do this very special thing for these wounded warriors and to certain racetrack, would you be willing to bring your car out here for free and ride these young men that’s coming back from Afghanistan or Iraq, whatever, that’s wounded most of them emotionally and give them in your car on the track.

Garry:                                   [01:02:20]               Uh, and I said, absolutely, that’d be fun. So I go out there and I’m all pumped up, right? I’m going to have a fun time and you know, I’m going to take these guys around and I’m very loyal to the military anyway. So I go out there and I start a given various ride just being like, I don’t know, 30 other corvette guys, but I had the newest one there. So everybody was wanting to see mine. And then I would pick certain ones that I would never pick. Ranking officers. There was a few of them there. I never pick any of the higher ups. I always pick the one that kept his head down and well acted shy or whatever. So finally I, I got this one boy and I mean he looked like he could pick my car up. He was so strong and he got in the car with me and we started riding and he started laughing and talking and then he says, this is the happiest I’ve been in like three years.

Garry:                                   [01:03:08]               And I said, well, sounds like there’s a story. They’re telling me the story. So he tells me about how his wife had left him while he’s overseas. He gets blown up in a, a, a Humvee 11 and people are in that Humvee. I’m sorry, seven or in a Humvee. Six of them dive in him. He comes to his self in German, a at the, at the hospital. He’s got matter, uh, that are still having to dig out of his skin from bone fragments from the other people. It’s really a bad situation. So then after a month they fly him back to Kentucky, to the base and he, his wife is waiting for him and he’s so happy and he walks up to hug her and she holds him back and she says, I found somebody else. I’m leaving you. Oh my goodness. And he is devastated to children.

Garry:                                   [01:03:56]               I mean he’s devastated here. He suffered like this. So as he’s riding in the car with me, he’s telling me this story and I’m a real blubber heart. Anyway, I’m about to just ball here in this. And then he says. So yesterday I was thinking about killing myself and he said, because I just don’t know if I can go on and I on. I immediately slowed down and let these other cars go by me so I could talk to him. And I said, and I reached over and took hold of his hand. I’m like, a band will take over a woman’s hand and I take all of his hand and I squeezed in. I said, let me tell you something. I said, there is a great God and he has a healing sab for you’re hurting so well. He looks at me and he’s big tears in his eyes and he says, you sound like my grandmother.

Garry:                                   [01:04:38]               I said, tell me about your grandmother. He said, when I was a child, every night she would pray herself to sleep and I said, son, go back to that. Go back to the memory of that faith because there you will find an invisible power that you will not find from any human on this earth and it will power you and it will give you energy to make it through this. So we have a great time. And finally I returned the car loose and kind of take each breath and show him how fast it’ll go. Well later that day about dark, I’m leaving the Corvette Museum and after meeting some dignitaries and so on, and this guy comes running across the parking lot, he hollers my name, Mr Ray, and he’s running towards me and he grabs me and hugs me and I’m just shocked and I’m obviously touched and he said, this is the best day.

Garry:                                   [01:05:22]               I have had in x years, I’m crying, and so we became facebook friends. We’ve touched base. He’s doing really well. He’s remarried. Uh, things are going good for him and I’m glad. So I would encourage everybody, seek a power that is greater than any human. A lean on that. Trust that work hard. Have faith, believe in yourself. Don’t feel sorry for yourself, no matter what, do not feel sorry for yourself, sympathy a inner sympathy. You give yourself as a crutch and it will cause you to feel validated, to limp all your life. Throw that crutch away and crawl, walk, crawl, run. Because I’m telling you, being successful in looking into man in the mirror, it is worth every bit of the suffering you have to do to look at men in the mirror and go, Dang it. I did it. When you can do that, you really have arrived at whatever field of endeavor you ever choose to go into.

Stephen:                             [01:06:12]               Oh my goodness. Thank goodness I don’t have video watching me cry. Carrie, thank you so much. I wish you nothing but success.

Garry:                                   [01:06:20]               You’re sweet, man. Thank you for your time and a tall. Everybody listening out there, uh, there is a great laugh to be had for all of us. So thanks for contacting me. I, I hope the interview will help somebody

Stephen:                             [01:06:31]               be honest. Did you get choked up? I did. I’m not lying. I mean, literally I had tears coming down. I said to Gary, I said, thank goodness I didn’t have the cameras rolling because I literally had tears coming down my cheeks because he’s real, you know, the way he can tell a story. I wish I could tell stories that well, um, it’s just so cool and I’m so fortunate that I get to introduce him into your life and I’m hoping that somebody out there has heard this and said, hmm, you mean I’m not perfect. And all those mega sellers aren’t perfect either. You mean you have to take a step back to move forward sometimes and it’s not a failure. Yes, that’s absolutely true. Recognizing it is the most powerful thing you can do. So I hope you got some value there. I know I did. Um, and I just, hey, reach out to me. Reach out to Gary if any of that connects with you. Um, I just love those types of stories because I think that that’s what you need to do to move forward in life. Sometimes. Be Vulnerable. It’s okay. ECOMMERCE momentum.com, ecommerce momentum.com. Take care.

Cool voice guy:                  [01:07:31]               Thanks for listening to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found at incomers, will make them.com under this episode number, please remember to subscribe and like us on ITUNES.

 

Stephen-Peterson

About the author, Stephen

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.